Elevator.



A TTOR/V Y 'i/VI/ENTOR JM Patented May 15, 1917.

A. L. SCHULLER.

ELEVATOR.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 28, 1914.

- WITNESSES pnrrnn srarns rarnnr ensues.

ALFRED I]. SCI-IULLER, 0F UPPER MONTCLAIR, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR T0 OTIS ELE- VATOR COMPANY, OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY.

ELEVATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 15, 1917.

Application filed May 28, 1914. Serial No. 841,410.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALFRED L. SCHULLER, a citizen of the United States, residing in Upper Montclair, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Elevators, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to elevators, and has for an object the provision of simple, elficient and inexpensive means for preventing the operation of an elevator car in case any one of the landing doors or gates be in other than closed position.

My invention comprises mechanical means positively for locking the controlling rope, or other device by which the elevator car is started and stopped, in center or off position whenever a landing door, gate or other closure is either wholly or partially opened.

The invention is clearly shown in the accompanying drawings in which Figure 1 represents a hand rope controlled direct lift hydraulic elevator system containing an embodiment of the invention; Figs. 2 and 3 represent the locking device in unlocking and lockingposition, respectively; Fig. 4 is a sec tional plan view of Fig. 2 taken in the line l-1-; Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic view in part perspective showing the adaptation of my invention toan elevator in which a lever is used for controlling the starting and stopping of the car.

Like reference characters denote similar parts in all of the figures.

Referring to Fig. 1, I show an elevator car 0 connected to a ram or plunger P adapted to reciprocate in a hydraulic cylinder A. A valve V is arranged and connected to control the flow of water to and from the hydraulic cylinder A, and this valve is operated from the car by means of the hand rope H. The car 0 and plunger 'P are counterbalanced in the usual way by means of a weight W which is connected through a cable or cables 8 to the top of the car. The openings into the hatchway at each floor are designated by the numerals 1, 2 and 3, and each of these openings is provided with a closure or gate such as 5, 6 and 7, respectively, which, in the present instance, is adapted to be moved into raised or lowered position by hand. The drawing shows the car at rest at the second floor and. the gate 6 at that particular floor in raised position, while the other gates 5 and 7 are shown closed.

In order to prevent the manipulation of the hand rope H to start the car in case one of the gates 5, 6 or 7 be in open position, 1 provide a shaft 9 which extends substantially the full length of the hatchway and is adapted to rotate in suitable bearings 10, 10, located at either end. This shaft is guided at intermediate points in its length by means of the members 11, 11, secured to one wall of the hatchway adjacent each floor landing, and is provided at its upper end with a sheave 1-1. The hand rope H extends through the car in the usual manner and around the guide sheaves 13, 13, and is wrapped one or more turns about the sheave 14, and secured against slipping thereon by a suitable fastening. By reason of this construction, a movement of the hand rope in either direction effects a rotation of the shaft 9, and it is evident that if the shaft 9 be prevented from rotating it becomes impossible to move the hand rope and likewise impos-' sible to throw the valve to start the car in either direction. The mechanism for preventing a rotation of the shaft 9 when a gate is in open position is illustrated in detail in Figs. 2, 3 and 4, and comprises a clip or angle plate-15 secured to each gate which coacts with one end of a corresponding lever 16 pivoted at 17 to a bracket 18 secured to the wall of the hatchway. The other end of the lever 16 is bifurcated and is provided with pins 19, 19, which lie in a circumferential groove 20 in the locking member 21. The latter is adapted freely to slide lengthwise of the shaft 9, but is prevented from rotating thereon by means of a key or feather 22 which may be secured to the pipe 9 as shown, or to the member 21. The lower part of the sliding locking member 21 is cut away so as to form a shoulder or clutch portion 23 with a tapered face which co-acts with the fixed member 11 which is likewise cut away so as to form a shoulder or clutch portion 24:. When a gate is in closed position, the left hand end of the corresponding lever 16 will be depressed and the clutch member 21 will be raised out of engagement with the fixed clutch member 11 as shown in Fig. 2. When, however, a gate is raised, the upper clutch member will move downwardly by gravity into engagement with the co-active clutch member 11 or if desired a light spring may be used to effect this result, the unbalanced weight of the bifurcated lever 16 assisting the downward movement. This condition is shown in Fig. 3, the clutch members 21 and 11 being interlocked and thereby preventing a rotation of the shaft 9 and consequently 7 making it impossible to manipulate the hand rope to start the elevator car. The clutch members are not adapted exactly to register with each other, but are so formed that when the shaft 9 is in an intermediate position there will be a small amount of clearance 25 between the shoulders 23 and 24 (see Fig. 3). While this clearance will permit a very limited movement of the hand rope when a gate is open and the clutch members are in engagement, this small movement is not sufficient to efi'ect the operation of the valve V to start the car. The purpose of leaving a small amount of play or lost motion between the clutch members is to compensate for any reasonable amount of lost motion in the hand rope and to insure that the clutch members will interlock when a gate is raised even though the hand rope is not exactly centered, although the valve be fully closed and the car at rest. When a gate is completely closed, as in Fig. 2, the clutch member 21 is raised above the clutch member 11 a small amount so as to permit a very limited movement of the gate toward raised position without effecting an engagement of the clutches. For this reason the elevator may be operated even though a gate be slightly raised, but the clutches will come into engagement so as to prevent the starting of the car if a gate be raised more than a predetermined amount, say for instance one or two inches. The lost motion between the clutch members is desirable from a practical standpoint since it in sures an interlock between the gates and the hand rope even though the hand rope be not exactly centered when the car is stopped and even though each and every gate be not completely closed. Were this not so the proper operation of the interlocking device would require an exactness and refinement of operation which would not be warranted in practice.

Fig. 5 shows the adaptation of my invention to a lever controlled elevator car. In this figure the lever is designated by 26 and is connected through the standing ropes H to a lever 27 which operates the valve lever 12 to start and stop the car. The lever 27 is secured to a shaft 28 which carries a bevel gear 29 meshing with a bevel gear 30 secured on the shaft 9. With this arrangement it is obvious that any movement of the controlling lever is attended by a corre sponding movement of the shaft 9, and, if the latter be restrained from rotating by reason of a gate being in open position, it follows that the lever 26 cannot be operated to start the car.

The shaft 9 may be solid and in a single length or it may be made up of sections suitably jointed together depending on the length of the hatchway, but I prefer to construct the same of sections of ordinary iron pipe connected together by pipe couplings which are screwed up hard and then pinned so as to prevent any possible unscrewing of the different sections. This preferred construction has the advantage of strength and cheapness, and at the same time is much lighter in weight than a solid shaft.

For simplicity of illustration I have shown a direct lift hydraulic elevator system, but it is obvious that the invention can be applied to elevators of other types such as electric, single and double belt machines, etc., in which the car or platform is mechanically controlled by means of a hand rope, lever or wheel. The invention is adapted to an elevator having any number of floor landings and gates, and the latter may be opened and closed by hand or automatically as desired. The closures for each floor landing may be vertically sliding gates as shown or if so desired they may be doors, screens or other forms of closures adapted to slide, swing or collapse.

The invention is entirely free of all complications and is not liable to get out of order. There are but few parts, all of which are simple in construction and of ample strength to insure against breakage even with the roughest kind of treatment in actual use. The device may be installed at very little expense and may easily be applied to elevators already in use without disturbing any of their parts.

While I have disclosed a preferred form of my invention, I desire not to be limited to the precise construction herein shown, since it is obvious that one skilled in the art could make various changes and alterations without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

What I claim is 1. The combination with an elevator, of a shipper cable for actuating the starting and stopping mechanism, a shaft extending vertically of the hatchway, a sheave carried by said shaft about which the shipper cable is wrapped, a vertically movable landing gate, and means separate therefrom actuated by the movement of said gate toward open position for locking said shaft against move ment and thereby preventing the operation of the shipper cable to start the car.

2. The combination with an elevator, of a shipper cable for actuating the starting and stopping mechanism, a shaft arranged for rotation by said cable, a landing gate, a clutch member carried by said shaft and rot-ating therewith, a co-acting stationary clutch member, a lever adapted to effect the engagement and disengagement of said clutch members to lock and unlock said shaft against rotation, and an operative connection between said lever and gate.

3. The combination with an elevator, of a shipper cable for actuating the starting and stopping mechanism, a shaft arranged for rotation by said cable, a landing gate, a clutch member slidably mounted on said shaft but prevented from rotating with re spect thereto, a co-acting stationary clutch member, and means associated with said sliding clutch member and the gate for effecting an interlock of the clutch members to prevent the rotation of the said shaft.

4. The combination with an elevator, of a shipper cable for actuating the starting and stopping mechanism, a shaft varrangedfor rotation by said cable, a landing gate, a clutch member, splined to said shaft, a coacting stationary clutch member adapted to be engaged by'the first named clutch member to prevent a rotation of the said shaft, a pivoted lever associated with said splined clutch member, and a detent on said gate adapted to engage said lever when the gate is moved toward closed position and thereby effect a disengagement of said clutch memhere to permit a rotation of the shaft.

5. The combination with an elevator, of a shipper cable for actuating the elevator starting and stopping mechanism, a shaft extending vertically of the hatchway and constrained to rotate when said cable is 0perated, a landing gate, a sliding clutch member splined to said shaft, a co-acting stationary clutch member, means for effecting an engagement of said clutch members to prevent a rotation of the shaft when the gate is in open position, and means for permitting a relative rotative movement of said clutch members when in engagement with each other.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

ALFRED L. SCHULLER.

Witnesses I'IARRY It. MARSDEN, WM. H. BRADY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents,

' Washington, D. 0. 

